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PRICE  TWO  CENTS 


> 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


/^NNE  of  Korea’s  famous  Ministers  of 
State  was  talking  with  a gentleman 
one  day  and  the  conversation  passed 
to  the  topic  of  woman.  The  Korean 
said:  “American  women  are  splendid 

characters,  but  it  is  a mystery  to  me  why 
they  bind  their  waists;  Japanese  women  are 
very  light  hearted,  but  then  they  blacken 
their  teeth;  Chinese  women  have  pretty 
faces,  but  think  of  their  crippled  feet!” 
“But  how  about  Korean  women?”  asked 
his  friend.  “Korean  women,”  responded 
the  minister,  “are  all  right.” 

This,  in  a certain  sense,  is  the  prevailing 
view  among  many  Korean  men  to-day,  and 
it  is  but  natural  it  should  be  so.  Beneath 
the  Korean’s  deeply  ingrained  teeling  that 
woman  is  essentially  inferior  and  unreli- 
able, lies  an  undercurrent  of  regard  for  the 
woman  of  his  race  and  respect  for  her  real 
worth. 


3 


ra 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 

Historical  records  and  investigations 
into  present  conditions  unite  in  proving 
that  woman  has  exercised  in  Korean 
national  and  private  life  a degree  of  influ- 
enee  out  of  all  proportion  to  her  theoretical 
position  in  society.  In  past  ages  queens 
have  reigned  in  their  own  right,  and 
though  it  is  repugnant  to  the  Confucianist 
to  do  so,  their  memory  is  cherished  and 
their  wisdom  has  passed  into  proverb.  In 
times  of  great  national  crises,  women  as 
well  as  men  have  played  heroic  parts  in 
saving  the  nation  and  inflicting  damage  on 
the  foe.  A well-known  example  of  the 
ability,  tact  and  resourcefulness  of 
Korean  womanhood  is  found  in  the  life 
and  work  of  the  late  Empress  Min.  She 
was  the  trusted  counsellor  of  the  Emperor 
in  matters  of  State,  and  no  single  minister 
or  group  of  statesmen  wielded  a farther 
reaching  influence  in  imperial  affairs  than 
this  little  Korean  woman  behind  the  screen. 
The  same  thing  is  true,  also,  down  through 
the  lower  levels  of  political  life.  In  pro- 
vincial and  perfectural  Yamuns  the  influ- 
ence of  some  favorite  concubine  of  the 
official,  or  his  chief  secretary,  has  been  a 
factor  with  which  native  life  must  reckon. 
As  a rule  this  influence  has  been  lawless, 

4 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


oftentimes  baleful,  but  never  indefinite, 
weak  or  vacillating. 

In  private  life  woman  appears  in  flatter- 
ing contrast  with  her  theoretical  inferi- 
ority. In  the  house  she  is  supreme.  Her 
husband  leaves  the  management  of  it  to 
her,  and  she  directs  the  servants,  provides 
the  supplies  of  food  and  clothes,  trains  the 
children,  cares  for  the  sick,  and  finds  many 
ministries  awaiting  her  powers.  She  de- 
votes herself  to  her  house  and  her  family. 
She  never  dissipates.  She  never  goes  to  a 
ball,  a reception  or  the  theatre.  She 
makes  no  social  calls  and  attends  no  social 
functions.  She  belongs  to  no  clubs,  lodges 
or  societies;  has  no  interest  in  public 
movements,  and  never  goes  shopping.  In 
fact,  she  never  goes  anywhere.  The 
characteristic,  respectable  Korean  woman 
never  appears  in  public  in  any  capacity. 
Her  world  is  her  husband’s  household  af- 
fairs, and  when  all  goes  well,  her  life  is  to 
a degree  free  from  care.  But  should  there 
come  a time  of  testing,  and  disaster  over- 
take the  house,  as  a rule  it  is  the  woman 
who  comes  to  the  front,  shows  resource- 
fulness and  keeps  things  from  going  to 
pieces.  While  often  the  husband  falls 
supine  like  a jelly  fish  cast  upon  the  shore 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


by  the  tides  of  misfortune,  the  wife  will 
turn  to  her  needle  and  her  washing  sticks, 
and  the  rice  is  earned  and  the  children 
clothed  and  the  household  held  together. 
Many  a man  w'ho  struts  the  streets  of 
Seoul  in  immaculate  white,  is  noth- 
ing more  than  an  errand  boy  and 
drummer  for  the  real  head  of  the  house 
whom  the  world  never  sees. 

Back  of  the  influence  and  importance  of 
Korean  womanhood  must  lie  a strong 
character  and  real  worth.  She  is  enter- 
prising, quick  to  learn,  tactful,  true  and 
sympathetic.  As  a mother,  she  is  devoted 
to  her  children;  as  a wife,  loyal  to  her 
husband;  as  a daughter,  obedient  to  her 
parents.  She  reaches  the  climax  of  her 
power  as  a mother-in-law,  and  her  sway  is 
as  despotic  as  any  absolute  monarchy  on 
earth.  She  attains  the  highest  altitudes  of 
her  position  in  life  as  a grandmother,  and 
the  reverence  paid  her  as  such  is  beautiful 
to  behold.  The  Korean  woman’s  world  is 
strange  and  mysterious  to  those  of  us  who 
have  been  educated  amid  the  conditions  of 
White  life,  and  very  hard  to  understand. 

There  is  another  side  to  the  picture,  how- 
ever, which  must  be  told  to  portray  prop- 
erly the  Korean  woman.  In  spite  of  her 


6 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


\ 


recognized  worth  and  abilities,  she  is  de- 
prived of  all  opportunity  to  improve  her- 
self; robbed  of  all  rights  except  such  as 
it  may  please  her  male  protectors  to  give 
her,  and  is  the  victim  of  cruel  social  dis- 
tinctions and  disabilities.  She  is  regarded 
by  the  world  at  large  simply  as  an  ad- 
denda to  man,  a part  of  his  earthly  im- 
pedimenta, very  useful  to  him, — like  the 
dishes  in  which  his  appetizing  food  is 
served.  Her  individuality  is  ignored  alike 
by  law,  custom  and  ethics.  Korean  man- 
hood has  never  discovered  that  woman  has 
a personality,  so  she  is  not  given  a name. 
She  is  tied  up  to  a man  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave.  For  her  the  whole  moral 
law  is  expressed  in  three  precepts:  “In 
childhood  follow  your  father;  in  wifehood 
follow  your  husband;  in  widowhood  fol- 
low your  eldest  son.”  This  companionship 
is  restricted  to  physical  planes.  At  school 
boys  are  taught  that  they  can  have  no  as- 
sociation with  woman  on  intellectual 
planes.  Therefore,  she  is  not  educated. 
There  are  no  schools  for  girls  in  Korea  ex- 
cept those  maintained  by  Christians. 
Korean  girls  have  never  known  what  it  is 
to  go  to  school,  to  attend  a concert,  to  visit 
an  exhibition  or  a museum,  or  to  go  on  a 


A 


7 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


pleasure  excursion  ^vith  boy  and  girl 
friends. 

Since  she  has  been  deprived  of  these 
advantages  of  training  and  develop- 
ment, some  color  has  been  given  to  the 
dogma  of  her  inferiority.  Man  finds 
her  the  product  and  the  victim  of  cir- 
cumstances which  he  has  himself  cre- 
ated. So  he  brands  her  as  weak,  and 
therefore  unreliable,  and  throws  about  her 
the  protection  of  the  law  of  seclusion.  At 
the  age  of  eight  years  girls  are  withdrawn 
from  outside  view  and  strictly  confined  in 
the  inner  apartments  of  the  house.  This 
is  the  Korean  girl’s  school,  and  here  she  is 
trained  for  her  destiny,*  which  is  marriage. 
There  are  no  maiden  ladies  in  Korea. 
Every  woman  gets  married  about  the  time 
American  girls  go  to  the  High  School.  She 
starts  life  at  this  tender  age  in  the  inti- 
macy of  matrimony  with  a man  she  never 
saw  till  the  day  she  was  married.  Then 
she  goes  to  her  husband’s  family  to  live 
with  people  whom  she  does  not  know  and 
whose  attitude  toward  her  will  vary  ac- 
cording to  the  social  scale  into  which  she 
has  married.  Among  the  better  classes  the 
bride  is  welcomed  and  finds  herself  in  the 
midst  of  an  admiring  and  expectant  circle 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


of  grandmothers,  aunts  and  servants. 
Among  all  classes  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  marriage  ceremonies  and  the  en- 
trance of  a bride  into  the  family  life,  shed  a 
warm  glow  of  pleasure  about  the  whole 
household.  Among  the  lower  classes  there 
are  serious  aspects  to  marriage  and  these 
soon  assert  themselves.  The  new  bride  is 
there  regarded  as  very  raw  material  to  be 
trained,  and  if  need  be,  hammered  into 
shape.  The  marriage  of  a son  is  often 
timed  to  fit  in  with  the  need  for  increased 
household  help,  so  that  the  new  bride  is 
really  an  ingenious  solution  of  the 
Korean  servant  girl  question  in  many 
families. 

The  joys  and  sorrows,  the  problems  and 
emergencies  of  life  come  in  their  order  but 
the  Korean  woman  must  meet  them  in  her 
own  strength  and  wisdom.  None  of  her 
religious  teachers  have  any  message  for 
her.  Confucius  and  Gautamo  regard  her 
as  a moral  conundrum.  Probably  the  fol- 
lowing quotation  from  one  of  the 
Ancients  more  nearly  represents  her  char- 
acter as  held  by  the  men  with  whom  she 
has  to  deal  than  anything  else  1 can  quote: 

“A  clever  man  builds  a city, 

A clever  woman  lays  one  low. 


9 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


With  all  her  qualilications  that  clever 
woman 

Is  but  an  ill-omened  bird. 

A woman  with  a long  tongue 
Is  a flight  of  steps  leading  to  calamity, 
For  disorder  does  not  come  from  heaven 
But  is  brought  about  by  woman. 

Among  those  who  cannot  be  trained  or 
taught 

Are  women  and  eunuchs.” 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  discovered 
woman  to  men.  He  is  the  only  religious 
teacher  who  has  a message  of  hope  and 
promise  for  her.  The  few  passages  in  the 
gospels  which  tell  of  his  teachings  and  his 
deeds  of  kindness  to  women  have  wrought 
a revolution  in  the  world  thought  which 
defies  human  language  to  describe. 
Korean  women  need  the  message  that 
Christ  has  brought,  and  the  workers  of 
the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
are  thrice  welcome  in  Korea — ^welcome  be- 
cause they  bring  the  one  message  Korean 
women  have  awaited  for  three  thousand 
years;  welcome  because  of  their  deeds  of 
Christian  kindliness,  of  unselfish  and 
patient  labor;  and  welcome  because  they 
are  the  concrete  and  undeniable  products 
of  Christ’s  gospel  to  woman,  and  a promise 
of  the  coming  womanhood  of  Korea. 


70 


THE  KOREAH  WOMAti 


Let  me  tell  of  but  one  of  our  Christian 
women  and  what  the  Christ  message  meant 
to  her.  It  was  during  the  India  famine, 
and  when  our  Korean  Christians  heard  of 
the  awful  distress  there,  they  were  deeply 
moved.  They  were  not  rich,  but  they  had 
enough  to  eat  and  they  wished  to  share  it 
with  the  starving  ones  in  India.  So  collec- 
tions were  taken  in  our  churches,  and 
money  and  various  articles  were  contrib- 
uted. Women  took  the  silver  pins  out  of 
their  hair  and  the  wedding  rings  off  their 
fingers  and  sent  them  to  be  turned  into 
money.  But  in  the  country  there  was  one 
poor  woman,  a widow,  who  earned  her  liv- 
ing as  a field  laborer  in  the  rice  swamps. 
She  had  no  money  to  give,  neither  any 
jewels,  for  long  ago  her  silver  pins  and 
wedding  rings  had  been  disposed  of  to 
keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  But  her 
heart  had  been  deeply  moved  by  the  tale 
of  distress  from  the  great  land  in  the  south 
and  she  felt  that  she  had  to  do  something. 
All  she  had  was  her  hair — long,  raven 
black  tresses  which  God  had  given  her. 
These  had  a market  value,  so  she  cut  them 
off,  sold  them  to  a switchmaker  and 
brought  the  price  to  the  missionary  to  be 
sent  to  the  starving  ones  in  India, 


II 


THE  KOREAN  WOMAN 


One  day  our  great  Christ  stood  and 
watched  the  rich  casting  their  gifts  into 
the  Lwrd’s  treasury.  And  he  saw  also  a 
poor  widow  casting  in  her  two  mites.  He 
noted  it  and  said,  “Of  a truth  this  poor 
widow  hath  cast  in  more  than  they  all: 
for  they  have  given  of  their  abundance, 
but  she  of  her  penury  hath  cast  in  all  the 
living  that  she  had.”  Many  gifts  went  to 
India  from  crowned  heads,  great  govern- 
ments, and  wealthy  individuals;  but  just 
as  on  that  day  in  Jerusalem  there  came 
among  the  rich  a poor  widow  with  all  her 
living  as  a gift  to  the  Lord,  so  among  the 
vast  throng  that  hurrie<l  to  India  with 
their  generous  and  timely  relief  came  that 
poor  Korean  widow  with  an  offering  of  the 
hair  of  her  head,  and  possibly  the  Saviour 
called  the  angels  to  see  the  sight,  and  said 
once  again,  “Of  a truth  she  hath  given 
more  than  they  all.” 

Few  American  women  are  reduced  to 
such  straits  as  this  poor  Korean  woman  in 
order  to  find  a gift  for  the  Lord.  It  is  not 
necessary  for  them  to  cut  off  the  hair  of 
the  head,  but  if  American  women  would 
give  as  much  to  the  work  of  preaching  the 
gospel  among  the  starving  and  dying 
women  in  pagan  lands  as  they  spend  in 
feathers  and  flowers  for  their  hats,  the 
whole  financial  aspect  of  the  work  would 
be  solved. 


12 


